Bottleneck cartridges, which include the great majority of rifle cartridges and a few pistol cartridges, are generally reloaded using a set of two dies. Two-die sets come with a die that decaps, resizes, and expands the mouth of a bottleneck case so that it is ready to accept a new bullet, all in one operation. The second die is used to seat a new bullet in a resized, primed, and powder-charged case in a separate operation.

Hornady dies are hand-inspected and the steel is heat-treated for durability and strength. The hand-polished mirror finish creates dies so smooth that they will never scratch a case. Rifle dies feature an elliptical expander that reduces friction and case-neck stretching. A sliding, in-line seating system vertically aligns each bullet with the case neck for perfect centering.